Gaines and more than a dozen other current and former female college athletes filed the lawsuit in March 2024, alleging the NCAA violated their Title IX rights by adopting and enforcing policies that permitted biological males to compete in women’s events and use women’s locker rooms."This momentary setback will not deter me or other women athletes in the least," Gaines said in a statement."Rest assured, we will be appealing this decision.
We are on the side of truth.I am confident Americans will rally to our side to fight the NCAA."U.S.
conservative political activist Riley Gaines speaks outside the U.S.Supreme Court as justices hear arguments in challenges to state bans on transgender athletes in women's sports on Jan.
13, 2026, in Washington, D.C.(Oliver Contreras / AFP via Getty Images)The plaintiffs have 30 days to file a notice of appeal with the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit,U.S.District Judge Tiffany R.
Johnson of the Northern District of Georgia granted the NCAA’s motion for summary judgment on the lawsuit’s remaining Title IX claims.Johnson was nominated to the federal bench by former President Joe Biden in 2024.Johnson found that the NCAA and the Defense Department maintained separate funding streams for the research.
Both contributed money to Indiana University, but the department’s money went to the university and other research participants rather than to the NCAA, according to the order.The judge also rejected the athletes’ arguments that the NCAA indirectly received federal funding, controlled entities that received the money or became a federal-funding recipient through reimbursements for certain employee travel expenses."Here, there is no evidence that the NCAA ever received, or could have received, federal funds," Johnson wrote."Thus, Plaintiffs’ Title IX claims cannot proceed."The ruling turned on whether the NCAA qualifies as a recipient of federal financial assistance, a prerequisite for liability under Title I...